JAPAN: A slowdown in Japan’s economic growth...

JAPAN: A slowdown in Japan’s economic growth probably will reduce the country’s capacity to import and may impede U.S. efforts to cut its trade deficit with the Japanese. Japan’s gross national product growth is expected to slow to about 3.8% in the 1991-92 fiscal year beginning today, compared to growth of 5.2% in the recently concluded 1990-91 fiscal period. As a result, Japan’s import growth could slow to 3% to 4% this year, compared to 11.2% last year, according to some independent estimates. Japan’s trade surplus with other nations has shrunk since 1986, but February marked the second-consecutive month that the trade surplus widened--in contrast with the last four months of 1990, when the surplus shrank.